The derp, it hurts

Pat Robertson: I Don't Have Psychic Powers, Just Get Messages From God To Heal People

“This isn’t psychic, they are real and we’ve had thousands and thousands of people who have been healed,” he added.

Evangelical Pastor Claims Giving Him Your Hard-Earned Money Can Cure Brain Tumors

And, not all giving is equal, apparently. Not in the eyes of God. Parsley takes it up another notch. According to him, if you give a specific dollar amount, then you will receive a “seed from God” in accordance to what you gave. If you give $37, for instance, Mr. Parsley says, “that is what it will take to receive God in your heart.” If you give $77, then “God will double” your reward. But, he doesn’t stop there. While those are relatively small amounts, he asks that if you are in really desperate need, $777 will give you an uncommon miracle. And, it’s a number worthy of curing brain tumors.

“The holy spirit is impressing on my heart, to say to you, release this word to you, so you can lay hold onto it by faith….because your need can be represented by a $777 seed (donation). You need an uncommon miracle. You need a miracle like that precious women whose childs brain was full of tumors. There comes a point when reason gives way to desperation and that desperation gives way to faith. That’s where you are right now, a $777 seed. Don’t allow this moment (to give), this God season to slip by.”

Jackson (Mississippi) Mayor Tony Yarber Has a Solution to the City’s Pothole Problem: Prayer

Everyone take a moment to facepalm at Tony Yarber, who thinks prayer can fix potholes.

Now be afraid. Be very afraid. Because Tony Yarber is the Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.

And he continued to stand by his tweet when questioned about it. Because asking city workers to take care of the potholes would be too hard, I guess.

Jim Bakker Urging Followers to Buy Real Estate in Heaven

“Heaven has all kinds of property, ghettos, shacks, apartments, starter homes and mansions,” Bakker said. “Send in your love offering to ensure you have a palatial mansion in heaven. You want to make sure you are in a good heavenly neighborhood.”

City council member, pastor spar over churches as polling places

The pastor of New Life Assembly of God has withdrawn his church as an option to host a city polling station and accused a city council member of discrimination.

In an Aug. 14 email to the Janesville City Council obtained by The Gazette, the Rev. Michael Jackson said he withdrew the offer after council member Sam Liebert at the Aug. 10 council meeting said he preferred not to use the church because of separation-of-church-and-state concerns.

Jackson accused Liebert of discriminating against his church and pointed out that First Lutheran Church in Janesville already hosts polling for four wards. First Lutheran has done so since at least the 1990s, according to its pastor, the Rev. Jim Melvin.

Jackson wrote in the email that Liebert is “the one member of the council who should have been most sensitive to the issue of discrimination,” apparently referring to the fact that Liebert is black.

H/T Hemant Mehta who has a good look at the issue. ",,,a church isn’t automatically a problem."

You heard the man, we heathens have this radical idea that maybe our government shouldn’t place Ted Cruz’s religion above anyone else’s.

Ted Cruz to Jan Mickelson: 'Atheist Taliban' Attacking Religious Liberty

“There is an assault on faith and an assault on religious liberty that we see across this country and it has never been as bad as it is right now,” he said, claiming that “radical atheists and liberals” are “driving any acknowledgment of God out of the public square.”

“There are these zealots — as you put it, the atheist Taliban — that seek to tear down any acknowledgment of God in the public square, and it’s contrary to our Constitution, it’s contrary to who we are as a people.”

Cruz: 'Liberal Fascism' Seeks 'To Persecute, To Punish, To Fine' Any Christian Who Opposes Gay Marriage | Right Wing Watch

Same four or five “victims” of so-called persecuted, Christianists that have been at every anti-gay event in the last couple of years: former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran, florist Baronnelle Stutzman, bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein, Mennonite couple Dick and Betty Odgaard, and former Air Force Sgt. Phillip Monk.

Cruz is desperate to up his polling numbers enough to make the cut for the next GOP debate.  It's a crowded field  dominated by Donald Trump, contenders like Cruz have to up his rhetoric just to register on the news radar.   According to the Washington Post: 

Cruz has said that 2016 will be a “religious liberty election,” and is working to woo the religious right, which has a strong constituency here, in the early voting state of South Carolina and in the rest of the South, which is set to play a major role in the Republican nominating contest.
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While Cruz will be competing for the evangelical vote with candidates including former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, former senator Rick Santorum and neurosurgeon Ben Carson, few have been as vociferous about the notion that religious liberty is under attack than Cruz. He brought up the issue repeatedly during a bus tour of the South last week, repeatedly promising that on his first day in office he would direct federal agencies not to meddle with people who believe they have stayed firm to their religious beliefs in the face of social change.

And so it seems that was the point of the "Rally for Religious Liberty" in Iowa, pander to the base.  Although it appears his "scripted" day did not start very well,

"What about the question about LGBT people being fired for being gay-trans?" Page asked.

"Well, what we're seeing right now, we’re seeing Bible-believing Christians being persecuted for living according to their faith," Cruz said.

"You're discriminating against LGBT people," Page said. "Well, would you use that argument in segregation?"
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Cruz cited the Gortz Haus case where the Iowa business denied letting a same-sex couple use their wedding chapel due to their religious beliefs. The courts ruled against the couple. The couple decided to stop offering wedding rentals to all couples and then recently closed this summer.

"Now I’m happy to answer your question, but not to have a back-and-forth debate," said Cruz. "No one has the right to force someone else to abandon their faith and their conscience."

According to RRW, Cruz made his rounds:

Mickelson asked Cruz to discuss his fight against the “brazenness of the atheist Taliban” and the fact that “anytime they furrow their brow at anyone [people] fold up and go home and give them what they want.”

Cruz, who has previously railed against what he called a gay “jihad" against Christians, apparently liked Mickelson’s phrase, and took it up while describing his work fighting against church-state separation efforts.

“There is an assault on faith and an assault on religious liberty that we see across this country and it has never been as bad as it is right now,” he said, claiming that “radical atheists and liberals” are “driving any acknowledgment of God out of the public square.”

He also spoke with Ed Berliner on Newsmax to discuss what Cruz calls "liberal fascism" which has a "hatred and intolerance for Christians."

Berliner asked Cruz how he planned to bring both sides together when the Republican Party has a reputation that it "does not like homosexuals, that you are anti-gay" and that it supports anti-gay discrimination. Cruz, predictably, refused to address that issue, insisting simply that "I'm a Christian and Scripture commands Christians to love everybody" before declaring that the real issue is the supposed government persecution of people of faith.
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"What we're seeing now," he said, "is this liberal fascism and intolerance where their object is to persecute, to punish, to fine any Bible-following Christian or believer that believes in the biblical definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. And that is profoundly inconsistent with who we are as Americans."
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"There are some activists who, frankly, manifest a hatred and intolerance for Christians, who are persecuting Christians," Cruz said. "That is unfortunate. As I said, I think we should love everybody."

Cruz: 'Liberal Fascism' Seeks 'To Persecute, To Punish, To Fine' Any Christian Who Opposes Gay Marriage | Right Wing Watch

See also:

Ted Cruz Called God’s Candidate At Anti-Gay Rally In Iowa: VIDEO